Professor Gregory McNeal, JD/PhD, is an expert in law and public policy with a focus on security, technology and crime.
His current research projects include a book focused on the investigation and prosecution of national security crimes (under contract with Oxford University Press), a book about targeted killings (grant funded), and a book about the emergent civilian drone market. His law review articles have been published by or are forthcoming in The Georgetown Law Journal (winner of an article of the year award), The Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy, The Washington and Lee Law Review, and The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy among others. He is a co-author of the casebook Anti-Terrorism and Criminal Enforcement (with Norman Abrams, 4th Edition Supplement and 5th Edition), co-editor of Saddam On Trial: Understanding and Debating the Iraqi High Tribunal (with Michael Scharf) and is the editor of a forthcoming treatise Cybersecurity and Privacy.
He has testified before Congress about drones, surveillance, and counterterrorism and has also aided members of Congress and their committees in drafting legislation. Previously, he served as assistant director of the Institute for Global Security, served as an advisor to the Chief Prosecutor of the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions on matters related to the prosecution of suspected terrorists held in the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and co-directed a U.S. Department of Justice counterterrorism program. He has consulted with the Department of Defense on a range of issues, including helping to draft a manual aimed at reducing harm to civilians in conflict, and advising on matters related to cybersecurity.
Dr. McNeal has also advised Fortune 500 companies and the defense industry on matters related to drones, privacy, surveillance, and homeland security. Before becoming an attorney he served as an officer in the United States Army. His popular writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Times, and The Baltimore Sun, and he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, NPR, NBC Nightly News, BBC, C-SPAN, and other national media outlets as an expert commentator on security, technology and crime. As a Forbes contributor he writes about law and public policy and is one of the nation’s top law professor bloggers based on the Law Prof Blog Traffic Rankings. You can follow him on Twitter @GregoryMcNeal and on Facebook at GregorySMcNeal.

FAA Grounds University Plan To Educate Students With Drones

In June I wrote about the University of South Florida’s plans to lend drones to students, at the time I wrote:

Students looking to use drones will be provided training in advance and will be able to check out the small remote-controlled device containing a video camera, which can be used to capture footage from an aerial view. This is exactly what a university should be doing — providing access to new technology for student learning opportunities.

Unfortunately, it is likely the FAA will shut down this forward thinking initiative. Earlier this year, the FAA shut down the drone journalism programs at the University of Missouri and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, claiming that the toy drones used by the programs were aircraft subject to FAA regulations. The universities planned to use the small systems according to amateur/hobbyist rules which allow for flights under 400 feet within the line of site of the operator.

Educating students about how to safely operate drones sounded like a great idea. I predicted the FAA would shut down the operation, and it turns out that sadly I was right. The Oracle, USF’s Student Newspaper reports that the FAA denied the University’s application to use drones for educational purposes.

Thus, while the FAA claims that safety is their mandate, they have prohibited educational institutions and other individuals from training people on how to fly safely — unless those people want to do so for free or with unrealistic workarounds like tethers. Does this make any sense?

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Why are they seeking FAA permission anyways? What does the FAA have to do with education? There are already laws in place for hobby use of drones that should apply? The FAA has created a sense of fear of a flying camera and people, organizations etc buy into it.